Tom Quiggin

Tom Quiggin is a Senior Researcher at the Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies at Carleton University. A court qualified expert on terrorism and a veteran of 20 years in the intelligence community, he is also the author of a recent book on national security intelligence requirements. He also spent 15 year in military service with time deployed in Bosnia and Croatia in 1994, among other foreign assignments.

The media (and some members of the intelligence community) frequently state that the Qurâan is a religious text which encourages violence. It is, they add, the encouragement of this text that causes much of todayâs terrorism.
Holy Amnesia
Both views are pointedly wrong. But they are regularly presented as âfactsâ and believed...

The Internet is doing what it was designed to do.
The barrage of attacks against WikiLeaks has proven generally futile, slowing, but not stopping the flow of information. For the US government and its agencies leading the charge against WikiLeaks, it should be remembered that the Internet was designed precisely to provide communication...

No real surprises so far
The current round of information provided by WikiLleaks has produced little of consequence in its first round. Observers are said to be âshockedâ to find out that American officials may be spying on the UN. Where is the surprise? The USA is a major power with an extensive intelligence collection capability....

This is unfortunate in one sense.
Roger Clement, a 58 year old former employee of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has pleaded guilty to firebombing the RBC branch in Ottawa last May. This is good news in one sense, in that Ottawa Police Service and their partners must have compiled sufficient evidence to convince...

Are democracies now hardwired for failure?
The various groups of insurgents and terrorists loosely known as âAl Qaeda in Yemenâ or âAl Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’ have now tried to launch three international attacks, but all three have failed. In a high profile event, the âunder wear bomberâ (Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab)...